Peel Ports partners with DB Cargo for first rail freight service

Peel Ports has partnered with the UK’s largest rail freight company, DB Cargo UK to provide a new rail service for containers via the Port of Liverpool for the first time.

The new service will provide shipping lines, forwarders, tank operators and cargo-owners with a seamless route, between the quayside at Liverpool and Scotland.

The service is due to begin on 8 May, with goods loaded in Liverpool and transferred to Mossend terminal in Glasgow, before onward delivery to destinations across Scotland. The returning service to Liverpool will carry Scottish goods for export, with a large portion destined for America. Scottish family-run company Walkers Shortbread, that produces 40,000 tonnes of biscuits every year, will be one of the first customers to use the new service, exporting 700 containers a year to America.

The new service will comprise of up to 30 wagons and is expected to carry over 40 containers per trip. The service will initially run three days a week with DB Cargo UK providing the rail haulage.

Jouke Schaap, Container Director at Peel Ports, said: “This is an important milestone event for us and our partners, DB Cargo. We know that cargo owners are looking for more efficient ways of getting their goods from A to B, and this rail freight service provides them with a simpler, more cost effective and environmentally friendly way of doing that. It also underlines our commitment to working with our customers and the wider supply chain to transform UK logistics practices to ensure the door-to-door journey is optimised.”

The available train path capacity directly to and from the Port of Liverpool is currently amongst the highest of all major ports within the UK, providing expansion options for importers and exporters that also minimise cost, congestion and carbon emissions. For intermodal traffic, the port has W10 gauge clearance capability, allowing 9ft 6in containers to be conveyed on standard deck height rail wagons. The new rail service will complement Liverpool’s wider logistics offering, such as multi-user warehousing, as Peel Ports continues its strategy of creating a truly multi-modal logistics hub right in the heart of the UK and providing supply chain efficiency and reliability for our economy.

For more information, visit: www.peelports.com

7th May 2018